Catherine & Gareth

Photography by Bubblerock

Gareth and I met at a party while we were both living in London. My cousin had been a school friend of Gareth's in Auckland. We ended up sitting opposite each other at dinner and talked and laughed all night. Gareth says that he knew by the end of the night that I was the girl he wanted to marry. The proposal came as a complete surprise in Melbourne. Gareth had been going for secret visits to the jeweller, working with them to design the engagement ring from scratch!

We were engaged for 11 months and married at Mudbrick Vineyard and Restaurant on Waiheke Island surrounded by 80 friends and family from all over the world including the UK, South Africa and Australia. We chose to have a summer wedding as we wanted an outdoor ceremony. Mudbrick's setting was perfect, it reminded us of one of our favourite places – the South of France, so we wanted to make the most of that beautiful location. It poured with rain for our rehearsal the day before the wedding, but we were lucky to have stunning weather on the day itself.

I wanted a dress that was delicate and elegant. I didn’t have a definite picture of what it would look like, but delicate lace and soft floaty fabrics really appealed to me. I made an appointment at Jane Yeh and tried on a wide selection of gowns. I fell in love with the third dress I tried on, which had a delicate Chantilly lace neckline and soft flowing skirt. I had a full length veil, gold heels by Stuart Weitzman and I wore jewellery borrowed from my mum. I also wore beautiful sapphire earrings which were a surprise present from Gareth on the morning of the wedding (delivered via my mum). My bridesmaids wore blush pink Ingrid Starnes dresses with gold earrings and bracelets.

Gareth wore a tailor-made suit from Working Style in midnight blue with black detailing. His groomsmen wore black suits and ties also from Working Style.

Blush created all of the flower arrangements and bouquets for the wedding and Danielle from Oh! Such Style did the styling. We used an abundant selection of beautiful seasonal blooms, including David Austin roses and dahlias. Our colour palette was blush pink, gold and cream – the flowers were perfect!

We had a three-tier cake, with three different flavoured layers. One layer was orange, one was rose and the last was chocolate, which were a selection of our favourite flavours. The cake was created by Magnolia Kitchen, who we had chosen due to their flawless and beautiful designs, and of course the delicious taste!

My best piece of advice is to get your groom involved in the planning – we had so much fun planning everything together! Gareth is so creative and has a great eye for style, so many of the ideas for our wedding were his.